But whether it does or not, he is still pretty sure to become South Africa's next president after this month's general election, when the new parliament then elects the head of state.
Optimists will argue that the stage is set for a sharp recovery in Asia's third-biggest economy if the country elects a more coherent government, in elections due by May.First, consider the data.
In municipal elections and elections for the Assembly of Experts (the body that elects and supervises the supreme leader), most of the candidates Mr Ahmadinejad supported were defeated.Does this mean that the hardliners as a whole are in trouble?
To draft new laws, hold a fair election and convene a meeting of the assembly that elects the president will, he argues, take until the end of next year.The opposition is divided over how to respond to Mr Habibie's timetable.
(Northern Ireland elects MPs from Northern Ireland parties, grouped largely on sectarian lines).
Unless the economy picks up or Mr Brown improbably finds a way of turning things around – or unless the party finally despairs of him and elects a new leader with greater electoral appeal – Labour now looks like toast.
The reforms to how the party elects its leaders do not start to kick in until 2015, so this will be decided by the antiquated three-part electoral college.
The SNC also plans to become democratic in how it makes decisions and elects executive members, ditching its current consensus-based approach, he explained.
When a person elects to trade privacy for fame and expose their entire family on reality television, as both Mama June Shannon and Hockey Mom Palin chose to do, they are also forfeiting the right to seek privacy only when the circumstances are less than flattering.
Politicians are strongly attached to the system that elects them.
It is one of a handful of states that elects justices to the state's highest court, and Enron made contributions to Texan justices, even though it was often engaged in legal cases in the state.
